This Blog is created to stress the importance of Peace as an environmental directive. “I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell.” – Harry Truman
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Monday, May 05, 2014

First Plank: Abolition of property in
land and the application of all rents of land to public purposes.

It wasn't the government that abolished the American Dream, it was Wall Street.

Any landlord gets to keep their rent.

Second Plank: A heavy
progressive or graduated income tax.

These were the Bush Tax Cuts Democrats in Blue and Republican on the right in grey. It is graduated alright. The USA has had a progressive income tax since the beginning of time. The Sixteenth Amendment established the income tax.

Most of the authorship of the amendment was conducted under Taft. President Taft was a Republican that took office on March 4, 1909. Given the fact a Republican oversaw the Sixteenth Amendment and their passion for the wealthy, it doesn't seem to be a Democratic interest. Ya know, the Democrats practice Pay-Go. Odd.

Passed by Congress (click here) on July 2, 1909, and ratified February 3, 1913, the
16th amendment established Congress's right to impose a Federal income
tax.

We can thank the Republicans for the Sixteenth Amendment. I didn't know they were following Karl Marx. I'll be darn, they been living a lie successfully all this time.

Third Plank: Abolition of all rights
of inheritance

That doesn't happen in the USA. If it did where would the Koch Brothers be? The current Estate Tax was established by Woodrow Wilson. Or at least his presidency passed the amendment and the people ratified it. President Wilson oversaw WWI. He was the fella that proposed The League of Nations which initially wasn't popular, but, eventually the United Nations was established. But, that was begun by President Wilson. So, given the war and the debt of the USA had to be addressed so he helped pass that amendment. That was 1916 when it was ratified and put into tax law.

There was a big change to the Estate Tax in 2013, too. It doesn't effect most people. I take it that President Obama signed the bill that changed the tax, right?

Most relatively simple estates (click here) (cash, publicly traded securities, small
amounts of other easily valued assets, and no special deductions or
elections, or jointly held property) do not require the filing of an
estate tax return. A filing is required for estates with combined gross
assets and prior taxable gifts exceeding $1,500,000 in 2004 - 2005;
$2,000,000 in 2006 - 2008; $3,500,000 for decedents dying in 2009; and
$5,000,000 or more for decedent's dying in 2010 and 2011 (note: there
are special rules for decedents dying in 2010); $5,120,000 in 2012,
$5,250,000 in 2013 and $5,340,000 in 2014.

Fourth Plank: Confiscation of the Property of all Emigrants and Rebels.

Hm. I think that man in Nevada still has his cows, right? He is the only rebel that is still 'at it' since the turn of the 19th century. It wasn't really confiscation, he owned the government tons of money. I don't think Emigrants have that problem. As a matter of fact, when folks travel to other countries they have to agree to have enough of their own assets to return home. But, that isn't really an emigrant. Americans don't really emigrate, the statistics show a few hundred a year. They usually consider themselves ex-patriots. But, even the ex-patriots are sincerely emigrating. Americans live abroad. Something like nine million, but, they are still citizens. They have babies in other countries that probably end up with dual citizenship, but, most Americans with new family register them at the USA Consulate to be citizens of the USA.

But, the Fourth Plank is just silly. Other than Nevada there isn't really anything in the USA that resembles a rebel.

Fifth Plank: Centralization
of credit in the hands of the State

This is a joke. Centralization of credit. That is all private industry. The ONLY credit provided to any American by the government are Congresspersons. I suppose Ryan could be confused about any other American having centralized credit from the USA. But, the banks have all the credit cards at rates up to 24% interest.

Sixth Plank: Centralization of the
means of communications and transportation in the hands of the State.

This is an interesting one. The means of communication are all private industry. But, the private industry has been going belly up to government since The Patriot Act. If one recalls The Patriot Act was passed under Bush/Cheney and it wasn't at all very patriotic. Transportation is private, but, the USA bails out the airline industry often enough. We do have Amtrak, which is necessary that can't own personal transportation. There is nothing like giving birth to a child, raise them, send them off to college or into life and never seeing them again because they lives hundreds or thousands of miles away. Give me a break.

Seventh Plank: Extension of
factories and instruments of production owned by the State

This only happens when the Republicans crash the economy. So, I guess, intermittently it occurs because the Republicans have no idea of what they are doing. It's tough to run a country on 'historical rhetoric' that is only found in "Father Knows Best."

Eighth Plank: Equal liability
of all to labor. Establishment of industrial armies especially for agriculture.

Labor Unions are all private entities. Agricultural armies? I thought they were called undocumented workers and I know Democrats would like to establish Immigration Reform for these armies. But, they are not paid by the government. As a matter of fact there are many undocumented workers in Texas.

The southern border is where most of the Undocumented Workers work and live. They sort of spread throughout the country, except, for New Jersey. What is that New Jersey thing?

"Equal liability
of all to labor." That is an interesting group of words. It is the basis of communism. COMMUNAL RESPONSIBILITY to work and support themselves. Interesting, huh? That is also, but different, the basis of capitalism. Isn't that interesting? The difference between communism work liability and capital markets where work can be found is where the money goes. The USA uses taxes, where the communists supply things like housing and stuff like. As of 2008 there may be a growing number of Americans who would like to see housing as a responsibility of the state. Right? At least when Wall Street crashes the government would have a greater interest in preventing it.

Ninth Plank: Combination of
agriculture with manufacturing industries, gradual abolition of the distinction between
town and country, by a more equitable distribution of population over the country.

How does any of that relate to the USA. Agricultural wants to market their goods, but, other than local groceries or farmer's markets it is all Wall Street commodities.

Ryan has a real problem with reality. Maybe that has got to do with Republicans unable to count past four. He just lies about everything to discredit nice people willing to run for office. No one would ever find that in the USA. Ryan is bizarre.

Tenth Plank: Free education
for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present
form. Combination of education with industrial production.

Colonial America had private schools and only the wealthy could afford it. This statement though is to indicate children go through an indoctrination in school rather than laboring to feed themselves.

But, USA public schools go back to the beginning of the nation itself. After the Revolutionary War the citizens established schools for their children and they were free to everyone. Previous to the Revolutionary War most could not afford education. They were colonists. The Thrown wasn't interested in having intelligent colonists, that didn't serve their purpose. So, when the war ended and the USA wanted to build a strong population able to do business and become elected to government an education became very important. The citizens were not free. Their Constitution established the fact ANYONE could become part of the government so long as they met citizenship and age requirements. It was a big deal.

The 'organized' public school really became a matter of social structure in the early to mid 1800s. It took awhile for the country to get up to speed for all children. Women were considered important to education because they would become the majority of teachers. It was all pretty cool stuff.

Massachusetts was the seed of public education in the USA. The rest of the country took up the model.

Horace Mann, was the strongest advocate for public eduction in it's earliest inception. He stated "our Public Schools are not Theological Seminaries." Horace Mann was with the Whig Party. The Whig Party had won the Presidency for four presidential elections. The Whig Party would become the Republican Party. The Republican Party would elect Abraham Lincoln. As a matter of fact, Abraham Lincoln belonged to the Whig Party and became a Republican as the party expanded.
Lincoln's Party Affiliation - Whig (1834–1854), Republican (1854–1865) and then National Union (1864–1865).

I think Ryan is a typical hateful Republican that seeks to victimize political dialogue with 'historical' and 'hysterical' references. Democrats are no more guilty of aligning with Karl Marx than any Republican. The ideas of Marx were duplicated by the new citizens of the USA. Karl Marx wasn't even born yet when the Revolutionary War took place. Karl Marx was born in Germany on May 5, 1818. It can easily be stated, Marx was inspired by attributes of American democracy. That entire dialogue by Ryan is hate speech and only presents itself as fact by coincidence.

April 2, 2014Representative Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) (click here) proposed budget for fiscal year 2015
includes devastating cuts to the health care programs women and families
rely on. Ryan would repeal the Affordable Care Act, make drastic cuts
to Medicaid, and convert Medicare into a limited premium subsidy. These
changes would leave millions of women and their families without the
financial security of high-quality health insurance, unable to access
the health care services they need, and facing dramatic increases in
their healthcare costs....

...If adopted, this budget proposal would:

Repealing the ACA would cause millions of women to lose affordable
health coverage through Medicaid and private plans offered through
Health Insurance Marketplaces. By repealing the entire law, Ryan would
also allow insurance companies to once again deny women insurance
coverage because of “pre-existing conditions” including a history of
domestic violence, breast and cervical cancer, and C-sections.Ryan would allow insurance companies to return to charging women
higher health insurance premiums than men, a practice known as gender
rating. His budget proposal would also allow insurance companies to
return to selling inadequate coverage that fails to meet women’s health
care needs, such as policies that lack maternity coverage. Previously,
92 percent of the best-selling plans on the individual market practiced
gender rating and only 12 percent covered maternity care.Repealing the ACA would increase out-of-pocket costs for preventive
services women need such as mammograms, pap smears, colonoscopies, and
contraception. It would also increase Medicare enrollees’ spending on
prescription drugs.

By proposing to repeal the ACA, Ryan would allow insurance companies
to drop enrollees or refuse to renew their health insurance policies
when they get sick. He would also allow insurers to return to their
practice of capping how much care they will cover annually and over a
lifetime.

I do know Saudi Arabia had originally attributed MERS to the poor and immigrants. I think it's moved past that. China has a method to contain their problems with virus outbreaks. Perhaps the WHO can make recommendations if the USA and China contains and treats these problems better.

The patient,
a male health care worker who was living and working in Saudi Arabia,
appears to be getting better, hospital officials said. He is no longer
dependent on oxygen and has been eating and walking around, according to
Alan Kumar, chief medical information officer of Community Hospital in
Munster, Ind., where the patient has been since April 28.

MERS
belongs to the coronavirus family that includes the common cold and
SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, which caused more than 800
deaths globally in 2003....

SARS was a coronavirus. I thought China was heroic with SARS.

A novel coronavirus (click here) called “Middle East Respiratory Syndrome
Coronavirus” (MERS-CoV) was first reported in 2012 in Saudi Arabia. It
has caused severe illness and death in people from several countries....

Guess what? The then CIA Director, David Petraeus, wrote the talking points.No one put a muzzle on him, no one dictated the words or edited the content. He wrote what he knew based on the best intelligence the USA had and he sought to protect any operative in the area that could be at risk. That is his job. When Director Petraeus protected operatives he was defending the USA. There isn't anything here.

By Scott Wilson and Karen DeYoungPublished: May 21, 2013

...The only government entity (click here) that did not object to the detailed talking
points produced with Petraeus’s input was the White House, which played
the role of mediator in the bureaucratic fight that
at various points included the CIA’s top lawyer and the agency’s deputy
director expressing opposition to what the director wanted....

Today is May 5, 2014. It is shy by 16 days of this article. That means with all the hearings Issa held and all the complaining by Graham has been a farce.

Let me take this one step further, if it truly isn't a farce, then these legislators cannot conduct effective oversight and they should not have their seat in office anyway.

The USA military with Secretary Hagle very aware of his budget and the need to adequately spend money where it is need understands the ridiculous nature of the chronic hysteria of the Republicans.

The Pentagon, not Secretary Hagle, has stated the cost and time spent on the chronic requests from Republicans is costing the USA military millions and precious time that could be spent more effectively on defending the nation.Published March 25, 2014Associated PressWASHINGTON – The Pentagon says
Congress' multiple investigations of the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S.
diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, have cost the department millions
of dollars and thousands of hours of personnel time.

In
a March 11 letter, the Pentagon described repetitive requests for
information from about 50 congressional hearings, briefings and
interviews. The department was responding to a Feb. 4 letter from Rep.
Adam Smith of Washington state, the top Democrat on the House Armed
Services Committee....

...Smith, in a subsequent letter to the committee's Republican chairman, complained about the financial strain on the military.

So, what is our military budget actually for? It is for a Republican political agenda and that includes the Iraq invasion. The USA military has to serve the Republicans. It has to serve up economies to constituents and it has to serve as a point of 'strength' for the Republican image. After all there are fewer Democrats that are willing to throw money at military pork like the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

Just ask to open the public meeting with prayer and recite an agnostic or atheist prayer. Prayer is a ritual. Why do agnostics and atheists be deprived of ritual to their own 'spirituality.' There is nothing stating ritual has to involve BELIEF in a god.

The Robert's Court isn't building on past precedent. This is the computer age after all. But, the only one place where Robert's finds it important to build on past precedent is when it comes to money and making corporations citizens. That's okay.

When Justice Breyer's arm was twisted into consenting to the changes in Affirmative Action there is something very wrong here. The approach Robert's uses is to throw the baby out with the bathwater EXCEPT where it protects the conservative political agenda. I'd love to know if Robert's is keeping a record on voting and attempting to coerce other Justices.

It is a bizarre court and highly biased. Next thing a woman is going to have to do is recite a prayer before an abortion. The county is under siege by extremists. And to think they get paid for this junk.John Robert's is a dolt. He just is. He came up through the ranks by giving and receiving favors, ie: Bush v Gore.

By JOSH GERSTEIN

5/5/14 11:33 AM EDT

The Supreme Court (click here) ruled Monday, 5-4, that sectarian prayers can be presented at official government meetings without running afoul of the Constitution’s prohibition on establishment of religion.

Acting in a case brought against Greece, N.Y., over its practice of allowing local ministers to deliver prayers at town board meetings containing beliefs specific to particular Christian denominations, the court’s majority said such prayers are legally permissible as long as the government does not discriminate among those seeking to present a prayer....

Everyone always worried about WAIS (West Antarctica Ice Sheet) because that is where all the ice shelves collapsed. The word in the figure to the left is 'commonly' occurring. Of course they were commonly occurring in WAIS because that is where the warmer oceans were meeting the ice.

But, my worry was always the tall ice. The ice that was mountainous. The effected by hot air and heat transfer systems. Then the nighmares started when the ice terraces started to melt and disappear exposing the lower elevations of the tall ice. With the ice structures that support the tall ice gone, would the ice simply melt of would it topple. Here it is.

East Antarctica may be particularly vulnerable to melting as the globe warms up. Photo: British Antarctic Survey

May 5, 2014 - 8:36AM

Part of East Antarctica (click here) is more vulnerable than expected to a thaw
that could trigger an unstoppable slide of ice into the ocean and raise
world sea levels for thousands of years, a new study showed.

The Wilkes Basin in East Antarctica, stretching more than
1,000 km inland, has enough ice to raise sea levels by 3 to 4 metres if
it were to melt as an effect of global warming, the report said.

The Wilkes is vulnerable because it is held in place by a
small rim of ice, resting on bedrock below sea level by the coast of the
frozen continent. That "ice plug" might melt away in coming centuries
if ocean waters warm up."East Antarctica's Wilkes Basin is like a bottle on a slant.
Once uncorked, it empties out," Matthias Mengel of the Potsdam Institute
for Climate Impact Research, lead author of the study in the journal Nature Climate Change, said in a statement.

Co-author Anders Levermann, also at Potsdam in Germany, told
Reuters the main finding was that the ice flow would be irreversible, if
set in motion. He said there was still time to limit warming to levels
to keep the ice plug in place.

Almost 200 governments have promised to work out a U.N. deal
by the end of 2015 to curb increasing emissions of man-made greenhouse
gases that a U.N. panel says will cause more droughts, heatwaves,
downpours and rising sea levels....

And the Kentucky Derby was won by another Big Red Three Year Old Colt.

Someone
tell that man to sit down in the saddle until the race is over. If
Victor Espinoza wants to win the Triple Crown and set records he has to
ride the race to the finish, not just to the point where he has everyone
else following behind.California Chrome has incredible bloodlines (click here) that brought him career earnings of $2.552,650.

By Andrew BeyerPublished: May 4

In almost every respect (click here) but
one, California Chrome’s victory in the Kentucky Derby was satisfying
and heart-warming, a triumph for the little guy that fans and the media
always relish.

The
colt’s co-owners, Steve Coburn and Perry Martin, are so
self-effacing that they dubbed their modest racing operation “Dumbass
Partners” and feature a donkey on their racing silks. Trainer Art
Sherman, 77, was asked a thousand times to retell the story of how he
rode to Louisville in a railroad boxcar with Swaps for the 1955 Derby.
He had waited nearly six decades for his chance to come to Churchill
Downs as a trainer....

Mr. Art Sherman is very familiar with California thoroughbreds with great blood lines.

"Swaps" (click here) with a blanket of red roses, in the winner's circle after winning the Kentucky Derby.

Swaps (click here) is a descendant of Man o' War, through his dam, Iron Reward, a granddaughter of the Triple Crown winner, War Admiral. In the list of the top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century by Blood-Horse magazine, Swaps ranks 20th.

Swaps was a 1952 colt born in California. He went on to earn $848,900 in his career. That was $848,900 in the late 1950s. It was a fortune. He had 25 starts, 19 wins, 2 second place and 2 third place. That left him only 2 starts out of the money. He was horse of the year in 1956.

At the age of 77 years old, Mr. Art Sherman still knows a champion when he sees one.

Congratulations and good luck for the Triple Crown.

Swaps did not win the Triple Crown, but, Seattle Slew did and he is the Great Grandfather to California Chrome. Chrome's bloodlines include AP Indy, Mr. Prospector and Numbered Account is represented twice on his dam side. You ready for this? Numbered Account's sire, Buckpasser's bloodline included Tom Fool, War Admiral and Man 'o' War . But, this is what is really interesting. Numbered Account's dam, Intriguing's bloodline included Nasrullah and Swaps.Nice.

There was a very nice surprise at the Kentucky Derby this year, Rosie Napravnik.